Category: Income Calculations

Pennsylvania Child Support Guidelines Are Revised – February 2017

February 13, 2017 | Child Support, Income Calculations, Legal Perspective

Icon for author Brian Vertz Brian Vertz

Parents who are receiving child support in Pennsylvania might get a small raise in 2017 — if they negotiate or go to court under the new Pennsylvania child support guidelines, effective May 1, 2017.  To find if you might be entitled to a raise (or have to pay more), look at the new Pennsylvania child support guidelines that are posted here. The Pennsylvania courts do not automatically grant child support […]

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Undisclosed Trust Distributions May Justify Retroactive Child Support Modification

Parents who receive trust distributions may have a duty to disclose the amount and source, even if the trust distributions do not necessarily constitute income for child support purposes.  That’s one of the issues raised by Eisenman-Gomez v. Gomez, No. 1596 WDA 2014 (August 11, 2015), a recent decision of the Superior Court that should have been published, but wasn’t. In Eisenman-Gomez, the mother of two minor children failed to disclose nearly […]

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Documents Not Required to Prove Income Reduction in Child Support Case

In Crouse v. Crouse, No. 639 MDA 2013 (unpublished, January 7, 2014), the mother and father settled their child and spousal support case when they first separated in 2008. At that time, Father was a principal of a corporation in the construction industry. Eleven months later, the support obligation was reduced when one of the children was emancipated, and subsequently, the spousal support terminated. In the fall of 2012, Father petitioned […]

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Business Owner’s Bad Bookkeeping Criticized in Child Support Action

The Superior Court articulated its intolerance for a business owner’s shady bookkeeping practices in M.K.K. v. T.C.J., No. 129 WDA 2012 (July 25, 2013), a child support action arising from Washington County. The father in this case, who owned and operated a vacuum cleaner sales and repair shop as a Schedule C business for over thirty years, had not filed a tax return since 2007. His 2006 tax return reported revenues […]

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Gifts Still Not Income in Child Support Proceedings

In Suzanne D. v. Stephen W., 2013 Pa.Super. 93 (April 22, 2013), the Superior Court contemplated how to characterize $350,000 in money transfers that father received from his father, in the context of a post-divorce child support proceeding. Father testified that the transfers were loans, evidenced by a promissory note, which would be deducted from his inheritance if not repaid before his father’s death. Mother, on the other hand, claimed […]

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2011 Child Support Law Update

Once again this fall, I am the course planner, author and lecturer for the child support portion of Family Law Update, an annual survey of the latest developments in Pennsylvania’s child support law and procedures. A copy of my PowerPoint presentation is available here. While there weren’t many new precedents published this year by the Pennsylvania courts, there have been some meaningful changes to the procedural rules and child support […]

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